Look, you’re disemboweling that poor gourd anyway, at least put the seeds to good use:

Clean the seeds:

I usually just throw them into a big bowl of water and rub them briskly to get all the goop off the seeds. (Editor’s note: yes, “goop” is a scientific term. Really) Throw the cleaned seeds into a colander and rinse well. The fastest way to dry those bad boys is to spread them out on your cookie sheet and blast ’em with a hair dryer. (Don’t look at me like that! It works!)

Season the seeds:

The Old School solution is either butter, vegetable oil or olive oil. All work well and crisp the seeds nicely when toasting. If you want to get all fancy-dancy, you can add cinnamon, allspice and a little ground ginger to your oil mixture. Usually 4 tablespoons of butter will cover an entire cookie sheet of seeds. I always add coarse sea salt on top.

Baking the seeds:

Pre-heat the oven to 275. Our oven cooks very quickly, so 10 minutes is plenty. Since every oven is different, stir often and keep an eye on those little suckers. It can take from 10 to 30 minutes to toast them to a nice golden brown. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container to maintain crispness.

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